Jason Jack Miller hails from
Fayette County, Pennsylvania, as in, "Circus freaks, temptation and the
Fayette County Fair," made famous by The Clarks in the song,
"Cigarette." He is a writer, photographer and musician. An outdoor
travel guide he co-authored with his wife in 2006 jumpstarted his freelancing
career; his work has since appeared in newspapers, magazines, literary
journals, online, as part of a travel guide app for mobile phones, and in a
regular column for Inveterate Media Junkies. He wrote the novels Hellbender and All Saints during his graduate studies at Seton Hill University,
where he is now adjunct creative writing faculty. In 2011, he signed a
multi-book deal with Raw Dog Screaming Press. When he isn't writing he's on his
mountain bike or looking for his next favorite guitar. He is currently writing
and recording the soundtracks to his novel, The
Devil and Preston Black, and writing his next novel, The Revelations of Preston Black.

Tell
us about your new book and when it is out? Where can people purchase it?

The Devil and
Preston Black is about a man at a crossroads.
Anybody who has ever had to choose between growing up and pursuing a dream
knows how it plays out. You can gamble with fate and win big, making that
impossible dream come true. Or you can lose it all. Preston Black doesn't have anything
to lose. Despite money problems, family
problems, and creative problems, Preston lives life with the best of
intentions. But Preston's road to hell starts in the record shop where he meets
the mysterious stranger who makes him believe in love at first sight, and finds
the vinyl he believes will lead him to his old man.

His trip to total self-destruction is a slow burn. Even with his brother, his
boss, and the ghosts of John Lennon and Joe Strummer throwing up warnings, his
early demise seems all but inevitable. The only thing keeping him from
imploding is the unlikely beauty who shares his passion for music. Like
Preston, she longs for something greater. She sees Preston as being more than
the sum of his many flaws.

Is
there anything new, unusual, or interesting about your book? How is it
different from other books on the same subject?

This book sits at a nexus of genres, so it is
finding readers from a variety of reading backgrounds. I describe it as urban
fantasy/horror with a love story at its core. But a recent review riffed on several literary elements that really looked
at the book from a much deeper perspective. This is the kind of thing a writer
hopes for, but can't come right out and ask a reviewer to comment on. I knew as
I was writing the book that it worked on several levels, and am happy to see
that it succeeded, for at least one reader.

For years,
people told me I shouldn't try to compare writing to music, especially when I
was working on my master's thesis. But musical themes run rampant through the
book. Music fans will be able to pick up things on several different layers,
maybe even an inside joke or two in addition to the changes in tempo, the
shifts from adagio to presto. After all, this book, in a way,
was a love letter to all of the bands and artists I grew up with.

What was the
hardest part of writing this book?

What
was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

The last one, of course! Sometimes I still get
goose bumps when I reread it.

Without giving
too much away, I wrote a chapter as if it were a concert, building and
manipulating energy like a band does on a stage. Using 'tempo' and 'volume' to
generate excitement was a lot of fun. I put myself on that stage and listened
to the same few songs over and over as loud as my eardrums could handle. And in
the end, it really worked. In my opinion, it's the only way the book could've
ended.

Did
you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

Awesome question!

I
learned to trust myself as a writer. Hellbender
was written when I was working on my Master's degree at Seton Hill, so it had
passed through the hands of eight or nine critique partners and two mentors. It
goes without saying that I learned a great deal from that experience. I learned
what to look for in my own work, and I learned what kind of passages worked
best for readers. But the only person to read Preston before I sent it off to Raw Dog Screaming Press was my
wife. I didn't have anybody looking over my shoulder or any voices in my head
besides my own (plural.)

This
book made me feel like a writer instead of just a kid with a keyboard. My
confidence skyrocketed because, unlike earlier projects, I chased an idea in my
head and actually caught it instead of veering off course. The end result of Preston was a book with the feel and
flow I'd hoped for when I typed 'Chapter One' in that brand new Word file. For
me, I put my ideas on paper instead of compromising because I didn't have the
skill set to approach such lofty concepts. It felt like a real victory. And on
top of all that, it was probably the most fun I'd ever had while writing.

If you had to do it
all over again, would you change anything in this book?

Is there a message
in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Tell
us about your book’s cover – where did the design come from and what was the
design process like?

The Devil and Preston Black came into this world as a self-published novel.
The cover needed to have a concert poster feel because of the book's content. I
spent hours weeks working with images and fonts but the end result
inevitably disappointed me.

When I scoured
the internets looking for printers who specialized in concert posters, the same
name popped up over and over—Nashville, Tennessee's Hatch Show Print. They are
a traditional print shop—no computer-aided design. They still take orders on a rotary
phone and utilize hand carved plates and wood type from as far back as the
1880s. They've dealt with some of the biggest names in music—Johnny Cash, Dolly
Parton, The White Stripes, Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams,
B. B. King, Pearl Jam…. I figured I could trust them with my little book cover.

After a few
phone calls to Hatch's Jim Sherraden to nail down specifics, I was handed over
to artist/designer Brad Vetter who spent a great deal of time listening to my
suggestions and walking me through the process. The end result, in my opinion,
was a thing of beauty. When I finished Hellbender
I called Hatch again even though the book wasn't as 'musical.' And instead
of the long list of suggestions I'd given Brad with Preston, I had just one—make it green.

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About Me

I've lived from New York to California, Washington to Texas, and several places in between. Love the Rocky Mountains, where I spent over 18 years, and I enjoy the heartland. I currently reside in Mississippi with my wife and two of my five children and two cats. A dog would be most welcome, but my wife is not overly fond of critters, she and the cats tolerate one another.
I write Speculative Fiction, mainly Fantasy, and Science Fiction. My current project is an epic fantasy that has a mind of its own.
I also enjoys photography, camping, reading, good movies, and of course telling fun stories.